Bitten By Designhttp://www.bittenbydesign.com
Graphic and Web Design Services for Sydney and Central CoastSun, 02 Aug 2015 13:35:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Bitten By Design’s official tumblr has launched!http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2015/05/bitten-by-designs-official-tumblr-has-launched/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2015/05/bitten-by-designs-official-tumblr-has-launched/#commentsTue, 19 May 2015 05:01:39 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2489Our tumblr page has just been launched! Check out Bitten By Design on tumblr we will be adding new things there that inspire or amuse, or are things we just had to share that we have worked on.

We have recently integrated our store into our Facebook page, which means visitors to the Facebook page can see all the product range, and can see anything new as it is added. Not to mention make purchases of all the lovely things that are currently available.

]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/11/national-novel-writing-month-2014-entry/feed/0Name and shame – just say no to free pitchinghttp://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/05/name-and-shame-just-say-no-to-free-pitching/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/05/name-and-shame-just-say-no-to-free-pitching/#commentsWed, 14 May 2014 22:22:47 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2182Outing the culprits.

Talk about laziness, bulk emailing all creatives you know to basically ‘free pitch’ for work. Without a proper brief or working in consultation, hell not even knowing the criteria they are going to select against, I would have as much luck with a picture my 4 year old has drawn than I would with something I spend hours working on. Is a logo worth a $1,000? Yes, but is it worth you doing the logo when you find out the request has gone out to all creatives they have on their database or in their networks…. probably not! You can call it a competition as much as you like, this is free pitching at its worst, because it is from people who should fucking know better.

My response to an unsolicited email for free pitching? Well, I could of done one of the following:
+ ignored the email
+ responded and simply declined
+ responded and supply them the link to the no free pitching website
+ pop it on my website to shame them…

Yes, name and shame time. Although the disclaimer at the bottom of the email states disclosing its content to anyone else is prohibited, sending me a generic email AND directing to tell my friends all about it if I think they would be interested in it, well I will take that as their permission to share the offer…

Hi Nicholas,

We have an exciting announcement to make… we’re rebranding! This email comes to you, those people in the industry who we’ve had conversations with before. Are you a whizz with logos and branding? Do you want to win $1000 (or the same in your local currency)? Know someone who might? Then click the link below!

http://www.xpand.com.au/blogs/xpand-logo-competition

I’m excited to see your entries… please do share this amongst your friends and colleagues if you know they’ll be interested.

What are you worth? Head to Xpand’s live Salary Survey to find out!
Six time WINNER of Seek’s Annual Recruitment Awards (SARA)

The content of this e-mail is intended solely for the use of the Individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this communication in error, be aware that forwarding it, copying it, or in any way disclosing its content to any other person, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the author by replying to this e-mail immediately.

Yes, they have links for you to see how much you are worth, but then want you to basically work for free?

I assume the head of community should know better than to bulk mail people.

Full disclosure: I have NO idea who this person is, or have had dealings with xpand to my knowledge. I am also an on again off again member of AGDA (and previously a Council Member). Which is why I got a little ticked off with the sender and decided to share the email as well as the link to the no free pitching website. http://www.nospec.com/design-organisations

Make your own mind up, but if many of the design groups are against this method of baiting free work, and educating them doesn’t seem to work, it is name and shame time.

]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/04/a-random-reward-for-myself-metal-and-hardcore-graphics-book/feed/0Outsourcing design: go local not global.http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/03/outsourcing-design-go-local-not-global/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/03/outsourcing-design-go-local-not-global/#commentsThu, 27 Mar 2014 20:21:18 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2160Every business needs a logo, business cards and all manner of branded material. So where do you start? Pretty much everyone starts their search online for someone to create the designs they need. With so many options, it is hard to know where to start. It’s your business, so any costs for the designs can be claimed back so you should just see it as an investment in your business. The question should be what VALUE am I receiving from the offers online. Lets cover off some of the more common options.

Crowd sourcing (basically just a competition where you pick the winner and pay them) you are being served by people who will find a way to limit their costs, so you might find the same design submitted by them over and over, or a plagiarised design. Good luck trying to trademark that in the future!

Cheap online logo library or a free logo design added to a super cheap overseas business card print job. As before, you have no assurance that it isn’t the same design they have done a hundred times before to keep costs down.

Using an overseas designer is fraught with issues of time zones and a lack of understanding of the local culture and style.

A locally outsourced designer will have an understanding of the culture and style of the region, and be able to supply you with a full suite of products that echo the locality. The value is gained from having a unique design to your business that fits within the style of your area. For example, a design that works really well for New York won’t have the same impact in a place like Terrigal (a small beachside town in Australia) as it is a different culture and a much more laid back pace of life.

You may pay a little more for a locally based designer, but you gain so much more from their local knowledge. Not to mention you have a lot more legal recourse if there are disputes about payment and the like.

So next time you need some design work done, just consider the value you really get from the supplier.

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]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/03/outsourcing-design-go-local-not-global/feed/0The Debt Free Designer Projecthttp://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/the-debt-free-designer-project/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/the-debt-free-designer-project/#commentsMon, 17 Feb 2014 21:02:21 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2144So I have been a little more quiet than usual. This is due in part to setting up a new blog following my journey from being in debt to debt free and then on to wealthy! (Or my spectacular failure at it)

the-debt-free-designer.bittenbydesign.com is the address, and I will slowly add more content and links and so on over the course of my journey. It is currently just a starting point, I am still looking at themes, plugins and all manner of admin stuff, so there may be some cosmetic changes to the blog as it progresses.

The plan is to showcase passive and active income ideas for designers along with selling my eBook (when it’s complete). Not to mention free creative content I generate, like iPhone wallpapers, animations and any number of other things as I try them out.

I hope to build an audience of creative minded people who might get something from my journey, and feed back into the blog with their own ideas and knowledge.

Researching the latest in SEO, SEM and social sharing alongside marketing techniques should give me some insights for the promotion of the blog, but also give me ideas for the Bitten By Design website and my clients.

Check it out, and let me know your thoughts!

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]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/the-debt-free-designer-project/feed/1Custom URL name for our Google Pagehttp://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/custom-url-name-for-google-page/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/custom-url-name-for-google-page/#commentsSun, 16 Feb 2014 02:50:45 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2136Bitten By Design’s business page on Google now has been updated to be a vanity URL google.com/+Bittenbydesign the next step is to start populating it with some extra pics, more detailed info and update the page with some better graphics! I would really appreciate any +1s you add as well, it would help me track how many people are interacting with it.

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]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/custom-url-name-for-google-page/feed/0Recent picture post trendhttp://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/recent-picture-post-trend/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/recent-picture-post-trend/#commentsMon, 03 Feb 2014 20:08:48 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2122It came to my attention that for several weeks in a row I had posted a drink in the sun photo or a photo with some form of alcohol in it. Let me be honest, I rarely drink much these days and did not intend to look like some alcohol fuelled sunbathing machine.

Although if the weather is nice this weekend I am bound to put another one up, but I promise it will be just the one…

…or maybe two drinks. As you can’t really go past a cold beer or a cider on a hot day.

Although thinking about it ‘Alcohol Fuelled Sunbathing Machine’ sounds kinda cool, almost worth developing a couple of clothing/bag designs to add to my online store. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks, you may just spot them!

]]>http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2014/02/recent-picture-post-trend/feed/0iOS7 first thoughts.http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2013/09/ios7-first-thoughts/
http://www.bittenbydesign.com/2013/09/ios7-first-thoughts/#commentsTue, 24 Sep 2013 07:22:29 +0000http://www.bittenbydesign.com/?p=2111As a designer, I like to have well thought out design in what I use. iOS7 seems to have some nice features and design applied to it, but then there are other instances which are going to take a lot to get used to, (if ever) like the zoom between groups of apps and the main screen, is that really necessary? It just seems pointless. I do miss the pseudo 3 dimensional aspect and the flat solid colour style can be a little jarring when you still have older apps sitting next to them. Safari seems harder to navigate multiple open pages, and although the photo sharing options are pretty great, the icons just seem like they are unfinished wireframe concepts and not the final shipping product. I love the update to the lock screen and password screen, that is really nicely done, but the look of the ugly simple line icons for mail just leave me wanting it to be more detailed.

There is plenty of argument for and against on the web about the update, but this is what we have now, and the added functionality hopefully will continue to outweigh how much we miss the old styling of the interface.

My 2 cents is that I am happy to have an update that gives me more options and hopefully will continue to be built upon so the look isn’t so stark as it is now in the future.